 The Agriculture Ministry welcomed the news of the most recent opening of an agro-processing facility. This comes after calls from the Agriculture Minister, Hon. Alfred Prosper, for citizens to take advantage of opportunities that exist within the agro-food sector. Jay's agro-gladden agro-processing plant has as its mission, the promotion of activities to increase environmental awareness and conservation, as well as reduce fruit waste. By dehydrating fruits to create byproducts such as banana and breadfruit flower, the owners hope their products will contribute to St. Lucia's economic transformation. Co-owner of the processing plant, Ezekiel Joseph, says with consumers becoming more health-conscious, creating a standardized environment to properly process and pack crops or crop products, puts the agriculture industry on a better path. That's my focus. How I can work with my family and my workers and, of course, the respective ministries to transform the agricultural sector through the establishment of cottage-type agro-processing. I think we need to do it, and I know we can do it. What we need is leadership, and I'm willing to give that leadership. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, Barry Morphé-Lissier, in applauding the Joseph family on the completion of the pilot phase of the processing plant, pledged the ministry's support for their processing plant's success. He notes that previous experiences such as the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of ensuring that agricultural raw products can be processed to increase shelf life. So St. Lucia has approximately 80 agro-processors engaging in a wide range of products in areas such as paper, confectionery, wines, weird flower, and everything else. Although there are so many agro-processors, we have very few established processing plants, and that is why this achievement is commendable. And the former minister, Mr. Ezekiel Joseph, indicated that he had established several in two in four or so, he mentioned in Azure, but there are facilities waiting to be established in Laka'i, the processing facility, honey processing facility. There is also a banana ripening facility. There is the cocoa fermentry. All of these things still need to be operationalized. We still have some work to do, and I believe on the export St. Lucia there is an initiative to establish food agro-processing facilities. With a focus on enhancing St. Lucia's food security, the Ministry of Agriculture continues to support efforts to increase and improve the standards and quality of our local products and by-products. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.